INNOVATION — GROWTH — DIVERSITY 2010 • PAGE 19
Wide Mouth Media: helping grow business S By Gail Jansen
Growing a business in Saskatchewan used to be about simply providing a product or service, having people like that product or service, and word getting around. As new businesses enter the market fray and existing businesses strive to grow, a shift is starting to take hold in how entrepreneurs in today’s Saskatchewan look at their overall image and the message they’re sending out. “Our target market is small and medium- sized businesses,” says Andrea Stevenson, owner of Wide Mouth Media. “Traditionally, they have always looked to the standard methods of marketing as the way to market, which is all good, but because of the size and limitations of small businesses, and the challenges they face with having time and cashflow readily available, alternate methods of communication and branding have to take place in order to really get their message out there.”
G PHOTO BY GAIL JANSEN
Andrea Stevenson (right) consults with Cindy Reimer (left) of the Glass Slipper Spa.
Wide Mouth Media focuses on helping businesses see the benefits of non-traditional methods of advertising. In some cases that can require a little more time, but also a lot less money, Stevenson says. There are even certain strategies which can be effective for the prairies.
“Business in the prairies is done just a little bit differently than in the more urban-type areas,” adds Stevenson. “Here, we grow our businesses based on relationships and a genuine desire to help our peers actually grow and develop.”
Wide Mouth Media uses eight proven communication strategies. Stevenson says typically they’ll first sit down with their clients and help them to develop a brand and a message. Then they help ensure all of the business’s marketing materials, from the logo, to advertising and even their website, consists of the one clear well- defined message about what the company is about. “We ensure that there’s a flow in all of their materials, so that they’re sending out just one message that says this is our company, this is what we represent, and this is who we are,” says Stevenson.
“We can tie in the subjects that they’re studying with the project that will be unfolding in their lives, and help them to be a part of it. They can say, ‘I was a part of that, I helped with the planning of that. My opinion was important. They’re asking me how I learn, they’re asking me what’s important to me in a school.’ Because ultimately a school should be for the students.
“We know we want a 21st Century school, we know we want to have flexible space, and we need to be careful that we’re not designing for the way things were or even the way things are now, but designing with flexibility so that groups of students can congregate in different ways, depending on their learning needs. “We want to be green and we want to be energy efficient,” adds York. “We also know we want our students involved in this process because they are stewards of this earth and they have a real connection with
Letting their customers do what it is they do best Stevenson says, allows Wide Mouth Media to come in to do what they do best. “While they’re busy actually running their business, we can come in and help them to develop their branding and identity materials.”
For growing a business the benefits of branding a company can include: increased recognition and memory retention of a product or service for existing and new customers alike, loyalty from those customers who associate a good experience with a brand, and an ability to add to a company’s services or products simply by extending an already established brand over them. Not sure you totally buy into the branding concept? Think of when you last purchased a bottle of water. Now think of how you looked to a particular brand or label when searching the cooler. Even though they all contain nothing more than water, chances are you looked for a specific variety because the brand means something to you, just as your own brand may someday have its own meaning for your customers.
Much has been written about the previous slow pace of growth in Saskatchewan, but that was then and this is now. With new focus, new determination, and companies such as Wide Mouth Media to help implement branding and identity strategies as tools for growth, companies in the southwest are starting to learn a new way of doing business.
Partnerships the key to success for Holy Trinity School Division Continued from Page 18
sustainability.”
Officials also plan on hosting a number of community consultations within the next year to ensure the school will be a flexible enough space to meets some of the community’s needs on evenings and weekends. As Holy Trinity now moves forward and enters into the design phase of its new building, officials do so knowing this will be a facility built on partnerships — a building that will serve the whole community for many years to come.
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